


A Time For Us

by mggislife2789



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: 1910s, Alternate Universe - 1910s, F/F, Lesbian Character, POV Lesbian Character, Reader-Insert, Suffragette AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-30
Updated: 2018-06-05
Packaged: 2019-05-15 21:06:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14797952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mggislife2789/pseuds/mggislife2789
Summary: Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters or their original stories. This is only for fun. It's where my brain goes after the credits roll. No copyright intended. Better safe than sorry. ;)





	1. Chapter 1

We needed a plan. My father would be out looking for me, trying to marry me off to some sap. Thankfully, he wasn’t home too often - always working - so I had plenty of time to sneak out and fight for women like me. Also thankfully, he wanted status more than he cared about his children, so he was always bailing me out of jail so that his friends and business colleagues didn’t look down on him.

As Emily walked in the door to the box, I smiled, waving her over. People were forward-thinkers down here. No one batted an eye when she sat down next to me and planted one right on my lips. She didn’t smudge the new lipstick I’d snuck in the house. Good girl. “Hey bearcat,” I muttered as I skimmed the dress that was covering those beautiful thighs of hers. 

“How are you babe?”

She had an easier time than I did - in a sense at least. Emily had no family breathing down her neck, no man dictating where she could and couldn’t go at any hour of the day and no woman suggesting she just know her place and settle down like a good woman should. But then again, that meant that she had no one to turn to when she got into trouble other than me, and I had no money to help her so that didn’t do her much good. “Father’s breathin’ down my neck of course, but what else is new?” 

“That’s just one of the many reasons we have to do this,” she replied, her head resting against mine as a friend of hers sidled over to the table to offer us some giggle water. 

“Can I interest you two lovebirds with anything?” He said with a smile. He had a secret boyfriend that his parents had no idea about, so he understood our situation better than most of the people down here. 

Emily ordered for you both, the sting of the liquor burning your throat. It was a welcome burn though.

I was a thinker. My brain went a mile a minute. “What if all this doesn’t do anything?” I asked, my voice soft. I hadn’t even wanted to ask it just kind of came out. “It would be a step for women but people will still think we’re freaks because I happen to love you and not some sap.”

She leaned in and kissed my forehead; heat radiated outward from the spot and took over my entire body. My babe always had the ability to make everything better, even if just for a while. “It might not help us personally, but don’t you worry. I won’t let that stand between us. We need to be the ones to start this so women years from now won’t have to deal with the things we did.”

“Why us?”

“Because we have the courage to, love.”

“Damn. I hate it when you’re right.”

Again, she kissed me. If it weren’t for the people around us I could take her right here and now. She was everything I wanted and more. There were too many people around though, and more were arriving by the second. Our little meeting was starting; we had plans to make. Big ones.

“So…” I said, inhaling deeply, “Are we really doing this?”

—–

Tomorrow was the day of the president’s inauguration. This could either work really well for all of us, or we could get backed into a corner. “I’m nervous,” I said softly, desperately wanting to lean in to kiss her but too afraid of what others would think. 

She stood closely at my side and grabbed my hand, rubbing my palm with her thumb. “Me too,” she said honestly. “But we’re in this now. We can do this.” Each of us took a pole in each hand - attached was a large banner we’d made directly addressing the new president. It read:

Mr. President

You say liberty is the fundamental demand of the human spirit.

If these kinds of signs didn’t get his attention - nothing would, and we needed him on our side for this to work.

“We can do this,” she whispered again. 

There had to be over 5,000 women here. It was the largest protest we’d been a part of thus far, and definitely the most public. Alice Paul led the parade of suffragists down Pennsylvania Avenue right passed the White House. There were signs all around, all directed at the president and attempting to get him on our side. 

Emily and I were more in the center of the crowd, which barricaded us from the flying fists and spit of those that opposed us. It wasn’t just men though, that’s what surprised me. How could another woman sit back and be treated like dirt? How was that okay to them?

The longer we walked, the more confident I became in Emily and my role in all of this. “I think this might actually work,” I said, turning to her. For the first time since we’d joined the movement, I felt something akin to hope - if not for us but women as a whole. 

“Do you?” The tables were turned. She was the one that looked worried now. There were a number of bruised and bloodied women around us, and I could tell she was afraid for me especially. Even within the movement, not everyone supported me. If it were up to Alice, I wouldn’t be here, but Anna Howard Shaw spoke up for us, if only because it gave the movement more voices.

Nodding, I replied back, just loud enough to be heard over the yells of the crowd on the outskirts of the street. “I do. I think the violence might bring negative attention. The papers are here. This is going to be written about. Talked about. Even more than before.”

“That’s true.”

By day’s end, nearly 200 of us ended up in the hospital, but as I’d expected, people were talking. They were talking a lot. “Do you think this kind of momentum will last?” I asked later that night. We were in a back alley stealing a moment alone before I had to head home. 

“I hope so. I think so,” she replied. “Do you have to go home?”

Nodding, I kissed her softly. “I do. My father is going to kill me.”

“No, I mean at all. Move in with me. It’s not much, but we don’t need much.”

My heart started racing. “You want me to move in with you?”

“Yes,” she breathed. “I love you.”

“I love you,” I smiled. “Of course I will. I mean I still have to go home tonight and sneak out some of my things, but yes.”

She grabbed my face in her hands and kissed me like she hadn’t seen me in ages. “Good,” she smiled. “There’s going to be a time for us yet. I can feel it.”


	2. Forged By Us

She’d said nearly a decade ago that there was a time for us. As I scanned through the haze of smoke at The Alhambra Ballroom, I had to believe that time was now. 

For 10 years, we’d worked ourselves to the bone. Emily and I took whatever jobs we could find - telephone operator, sales clerk, secretary, anything and we saved up, staying in the cheapest apartments we could find. It didn’t matter where we lived, just that we had each other. I didn’t have to deal with my father anymore, and we could finally be together. Not that we didn’t face any obstacles; they definitely still came up.

Specifically for me. As a “colored person,” it was difficult. Some white people didn’t want a black, female doctor, but that’s what they were gonna get. Emily worked day in and day out while I was in school to keep us afloat - to help me make my dream come true. I wanted to prove everyone wrong and I have. Damn them and their stupidity. Now, we both had steady jobs - I the doctor and she the nurse. We don’t have all the money in the world (because of course I can’t make the same amount of money as the white, male doctors I work with - bushwa!) but we’re happy.

“You look beautiful, Doctor,” Emily said, smiling into me as the woman took the stage. Apparently, her name was Billie Holiday and she was an up and comer. Just a kid. Hell, she was barely but a baby when Emily and I first met. I was wearing a very simple dress, light blue in color with not much embellishment, nothing like the cream-colored beaded beauty that Ms. Holiday was wearing. Emily was wearing a black silk dress that played beautifully off her skin.

As the smoky voice of the singer before us began to waft throughout the club, I gathered Emily to me and reveled in the feeling of her melting into me. “You’re a choice bit of calico yourself, babe.”

Around us, some gave us looks, but here was where we could be the most free about our love in public, so we came here a lot. “This girl shouldn’t have a voice like that yet. She’s so young,” Emily whispered, entangling her fingers in mine. 

“I know. She’s gonna be big. I can feel it. She’ll be around 30 or 40 years from now.”

Emily picked her head up and kissed my cheek. “You think we’ll be around then? Together, I mean?”

“Absolutely, I hope you don’t think you’re getting rid of me that easily. We’re in this for the long haul, Sheba.” Without a care for who might see or bring attention to us, I placed my finger underneath her chin and tilted it upward, pressing my lips against hers. Ms. Holiday gave as a sultry look. I couldn’t say for sure, but I would’ve bet on the horses on the young girl loving both men and women. 

Emily pulled away for a moment, glancing around to see a couple of older men staring. “What if they say something?” 

“I don’t care,” I replied honestly. “I’m in love. If they don’t like it, they can look away.”

Biting her lip, she leaned in to kiss me this time before resting her head against my shoulder. This was what we deserved after so long - to be sitting in public, holding hands and kissing as the smell of smoke swirled around us in the small, dimly-lit space. Ms. Holiday sang another few songs before Jelly Roll Morton came to the stage, livening the mood a little more and inviting the patrons to come to the dance floor. 

All eyes were on us, but we reveled in it and tuned everyone else out. Pay them no mind was my new motto. I could hear someone nearby mutter “bull-dagger.”

“I prefer sapphist,” I said, laughing when Emily’s mouth dropped open. Pay them no mind but take no shit. One of the reasons Emily loved me was for my headstrong nature.

Grabbing her hand, I twirled her around me and pulled her into my body, swaying back and forth to the music. Before either of us could say bushwa, the music was over, leaving us to wander home. “Hold my hand,” I said as we left the club. 

Emily obliged, the smile quickly stripped from her face as we stepped outside and got confronted by two young white boys. “You could do so much better,” one said, attempting to grab Emily. 

She was beautiful, but it was a mistake for anyone to deny her strength. “Do not touch me. And do not say a word against the woman I love.” When he attempted to touch her again, she kneed him where the sun didn’t shine and wrapped her arm around me for our walk home. “You okay?”

“Of course,” I laughed softly. “You know my new motto.”

Emily replied proudly. “Pay them no mind but take no shit. Have I said how much I loved you lately?”

“Not today.” I stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and puckered up, giggling as she planted one on me.

“Well, I love you.”

“I love you more.”

She’d been right. There was a time for us, and we’d forged it for ourselves.


End file.
